taibhsearachd

sf ind Second sight. 2* Bewildered conduct. [The following is from Armstrong]. At the sight of a vision of this kind, Dr. Martin observes, the eyelids of the gifted persons were erected and the eyes continued staring till the vision disappeared. If an object is seen in the morning, it will be accomplished in the afternoon; if at noon, on that very day; if in the evening, that very night; and if after candles are lit, on that night for certain. If a shroud is seen about a person, it foretells approaching death and the time of it is more or less distant, according to the height, at which the shroud is observed on the body. If it be seen about the middle, death is not expected within a twelvemonth; if as high as the head, it is not many hours distant. To see a spark of fire falling on one's arm, foretells that a dead child shall be seen in the arms of that person. To see a chair empty at at the time a person sits in it, is a sure sign of approaching death to that person. Seers did not observe supernatural appearances at the same time, though they might happen to be in the same apartment but when one of them who saw a vision, touched any number of his brethren, they all saw it as well as the first. The following are three instances recorded by an English nobleman in the 17^th century, who, previous to his going to the Highlands, was one of the sturdiest unbelievers in the second-sight. 1. “In the year 1652 I was travelling in the Highlands and a good number of servants with me, as is usual there. One of them going a little before me, entering into a house where I was to stay all night and going hastily to the door, he suddenly stepped back with a screech and did fall by a stone which hit his foot. I asked what was the matter, for he seemed to be very much frighted. He told me very seriously that I should not lodge in that house, because shortly a dead body in a coffin would be carried out of it, for many were carrying it when he was heard to cry. I neglecting his words, and staying there, he said to the other servants he was sorry for it, and that what he saw would surely come to pass. Though no sick person was then there, yet the landlord died of an apoplectic fit before I left the house.” 2. “In January 1652, Lieut. Col. Alexander Munro and I were in the house of one Wm. MacLeod of Ferinlea in the county of Ross. He, the landlord and I, were sitting on three chairs near the fire and in the corner of the great chimney were two islanders, who were that very night come to the house and were related to the landlord. While one of them was talking to Munro I noticed the other looking oddly towards me. From his look and his being an islander, I supposed him to be a seer and asked him what he stared at. He answered me by desiring me to rise from the chair, for it was an unlucky one. I asked him why. He answered me, because there was a dead man in the chair next to me. Well, said I, if he be in the chair next to me, I may keep my own. But what is the likeness of the man? He said he was a tall man with a long grey coat, booted and one of his legs hanging over the arm of the chair and his head hanging dead on the other side and his arm backward as if it were broken. There were some English troops then quartered near that place and there being at that time a great frost after a thaw, the country was covered all over with ice. Four or five of the English riding by this house some two hours after the vision, while we were sitting by the tire, we heard a great noise, which proved to be those troopers, with the help of other servants, carrying in one of their number, who had had a very bad fall and had his arm broken; and falling frequently into fits, they brought him into the hall and set him on the very chair and in the very posture that the seer prophesied. The man did not die, though he recovered with great difficulty.” 3. “Among the accounts given me by Sir Norman MacLeod, there was one worthy of special notice — There was a gentleman in the Isle of Harris who was always seen by the seers with an arrow in his thigh. Such in the isle who thought these prognostications infallible did not doubt but he would be shot in the thigh before he died. Sir Norman told me that he heard it the subject of their discourse for many years. At last he died without any such accident. Sir Norman was at his burial at St. Clement's Church in Harris. At the same time the corpse of another gentleman was brought to be buried in the very same church. The friends on either side came to debate who should first enter the church and in a trice from words they came to blows. One of the number, who was armed with a bow and arrows, let one fly among them. (Now every family in that isle have their burial place in the church in stone chests and the bodies are carried in open biers to the burial-place). Sir Norman having appeased the tumult, one of the arrows was found shot in the dead man's thigh. To this Sir Norman was a witness.” — Succinct accompt of my Lord Tarbolt's Relations, in a Letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, Esquire, of the Predictions made by seers, whereof himself was Ear and Eyewitness. By pretension to second sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. It is an involuntary affection in which neither hope nor fear are known to have any part. Those who profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilege nor are considered by others to be advantageously distinguished. They have no temptation to feign and their hearers have no motives to encourage an imposture. Armstrong concludes his account with a lengthy description of the theories of Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen and the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson but as they are only theories they have been omitted here.

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